Beware Nighttime Snacks!

Before rummaging through the refrigerator for a late night snack, stop to consider your food choices – your body and brain will thank you after you tuck into your silk bed sheets for a good night’s sleep until the morning. Just like certain foods are good or bad for your heart, so too are certain foods good or bad for your sleep cycle even if you are feeling comfortable between your flat bed sheets. The right morsel can send you happily off to dreamland, while the wrong one can keep you awake for hours on end.

Do’s

Good choices include snacks that are rich in tryptophan, a substance that makes you drowsy and promotes sleep. These foods include:

• anything in the dairy category, such as cheese and milk

• nuts

• bananas

• honey

• eggs

Giving into you carb cravings isn’t a bad idea either – carbs increase the amount of tryptophan to just the right proportions in your blood to help you drift off.

Bigtime Don’ts

But whatever you do, don’t eat a heavy meal right before bed – stick to light snacks. A large amount of food sitting in your stomach will activate digestion, which may disrupt your drifting-off-to-dreamland process. One easy way to do this is by looking how much is left in the fridge when you’re done eating. If it started out full, and looks like this at the end, you may be doing it wrong!

Avoid Fats Like The Plague

What’s more, you should steer clear of foods high in fat as well, like burgers, steak, or French fries. Recent studies indicate that fatty foods disrupt sleep cycles, especially if eaten right before bed. So if you’re getting late night cravings, choose your nibbles wisely for a restful and successful night’s sleep.

This Sounded Familiar

You may have noticed that the advice here could just as easily have been found in a general diet article. Just like eating the right foods has other benefits, if you eat right, you’ll get more sleep and function better throughout the day.